I'm trying to get into my new NetVanta 1234 PoE Switch via Serial to configure it, but I'm having a **** of a time doing it.

I've googled the following connection settings...

VT100, 9600, 8bit, 1 stop bit, no flow control

and with those settings I can see the flood of data on a cold boot, but what I can't seem to do is get my switch to hear my ESC keypress, and it just happily continues to boot after the 5 second pause. I'm using a XP pro box for my connection and first tried HyperTerminal, then after that didn't work, I thought I'd give it another shot with Putty; and that didn't work either...

I went ahead and flagged this post as “Assumed Answered.” If any of the responses on this thread assisted you, please mark them as either Correct or Helpful answers with the applicable buttons. This will make them visible and help other members of the community find solutions more easily. If you still need assistance, I would be more than happy to work with you on this - just let me know in a reply.

Sorry, its just hard to reset this device at any given time as it takes down all of our users desk phones, and their local printers which are connected through the desk phones extra LAN port. I'll try to get in before the rest of the office tomorrow and play with it again with a new cable as suggested. Another thought I had is to not be remoted into the client computer via our remote control software. I'll try that first, if it still doesn't work, I'll grab a different cable.

Okay, I tried with while be directly connected to the client system, instead of remote controlling it over the LAN. Still no luck. Looking to try another computer, a older laptop running Windows 2000 with a built-in com port, and I have a few cables, but I need to check they are all straight Null cables...

rsa - I think unified may have already mentioned this, but you will need to make sure that the console cable you are using is a straightthrough serial cable. A null cable will not work. You can test whether you have a working cable or not by doing a paperclip test on it. The instructions on how to perform this test are listed below:

**Note:** It will be easier if there are 2 people to run this test. One person can hold the paperclip in place while the other person types.

1. You will first need to make sure that you have the cable plugged into your PC and a console session open as if you were consoling into the AOS device.

2. Hold the other end of the console cable so that the 5-pin row is on top.

3. Take a metal paper clip and touch Pins 2 and 3 (second and third pins from the left). Make sure those are the only 2 pins that are being touched by the paper clip and also make sure you are not touching the metal edge either.

4. While holding the paper clip in place, try and type something into the console session.

If you see what you are typing, then this verifies that the cable is a good one. However, this test will also work for null modem cables so you will want to confirm that you are using a straightthrough serial cable when consoling into an AOS device.

Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions.

I went ahead and flagged the "Correct Answer" on this post to make it more visible and help other members of the community find solutions more easily. If you don't feel like the answer I marked was correct, feel free to come back to this post and unmark it and select another in its place with the applicable buttons. If you still need assistance, we would be more than happy to continue working with you on this - just let us know in a reply.